4 ms·

Where it all went sideways was when mainstream news started showing tweets on air. EDIT: I need to add clarification. I don't mean when breaking news gets onto

Where it all went sideways was when mainstream news started showing tweets on air. EDIT: I need to add clarification. I don't mean when breaking news gets onto mainstream channels. No question that happens. What I mean is the use of a single tweet with maybe 1 or 2 likes here or there to reflect public sentiment on different issues. All any news station had to do was fish through the pile of tweets about any given topic to find something they wanted to show on air and then act as if it represented a large segment of people. I watched it happen over and over for years. Twitter created the ability to engineer the perception of public sentiment already with bots, but when main stream news joined in things went downhill much, much faster.

bonestamp2 5y ago
I think that's a symptom and not the root cause. The root cause was when we stopped paying for news with money and started paying for news with clicks. That changed how news was gathered, reported, and shared.
mmastrac 5y ago
I agree. News stories about X "dragging" Y on Twitter were rock bottom.
stcredzero 5y ago
Perhaps things had started to slide sideways before that? I distinctly remember a period of time, I think nearly a decade back, when I'd constantly hear about something on NPR and think, "I saw that headline on reddit yesterday! Are they even trying!?"
- datavirtue 5y ago
  Everything of significance comes by way of open sources. It isn't odd for anyone to do a story that was reported in another source.
  - stcredzero 5y ago
    If, at that time, NPR was aggregating information, that would be one thing. I really got the impression that they were mindlessly lifting headlines and story ideas.
sjg007 5y ago
Broadcasters love it when the news writes itself.
criddell 5y ago
Are they just giving audiences what they want?
alpha_squared 5y ago
Mainstream news used to have a near-monopoly on access to events and crime scenes. The advent of smartphones with ever-improving cameras gives the average citizen, who's there in the moment, first access. Twitter just happened to be the medium with lowest barrier to sharing that, but it would've happened regardless. As stations couldn't keep up with the "breaking" part of news, it just made sense (unfortunately) to adopt the share-what-others-say model and talk about that instead.
- brewdad 5y ago
  I don't think eyewitness video is the biggest problem. When @LGBrandon8534932 gets their tweets posted on the evening news and it's treated the same as a statement from Dr Fauci. THAT'S a problem. Hyperbole. But not by much.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - alpha_squared 5y ago
    Once the floodgates have opened to allow social media statements to permeate mainstream news, there's no limiting which social media is acceptable and which isn't. Eventually, social media itself becomes the news. That feels like a natural progression to me, personally, despite how much I hate it.
cletus 5y ago
Another case of blaming a symptom rather than the cause. The media began showing Tweets because Twitter had reached a sufficient audience size. The real problem is the audience size. Stroustrup famously said [1]: > There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses. I'd paraphrase this about communication platforms (including social media, Reddit, forums, etc): > There are only two kinds of communication platforms: the ones where people are reactionary, argumentative, tribal, incendiary, conflict-seeking, virtue-signaling and just downright mean and the others too small for that not to have happened yet. [1]: https://www.stroustrup.com/quotes.html#:~:text=%22There%20are%20only%20two%20kinds,and%20the%20ones%20nobody%20uses%22 https://www.stroustrup.com/quotes.html#:~:text=%22There%20ar....

bonestamp2 5y ago

I think that's a symptom and not the root cause. The root cause was when we stopped paying for news with money and started paying for news with clicks. That changed how news was gathered, reported, and shared.

mmastrac 5y ago

I agree. News stories about X "dragging" Y on Twitter were rock bottom.

stcredzero 5y ago

Perhaps things had started to slide sideways before that? I distinctly remember a period of time, I think nearly a decade back, when I'd constantly hear about something on NPR and think, "I saw that headline on reddit yesterday! Are they even trying!?"

datavirtue 5y ago
Everything of significance comes by way of open sources. It isn't odd for anyone to do a story that was reported in another source.
- stcredzero 5y ago
  If, at that time, NPR was aggregating information, that would be one thing. I really got the impression that they were mindlessly lifting headlines and story ideas.

sjg007 5y ago

Broadcasters love it when the news writes itself.

criddell 5y ago

Are they just giving audiences what they want?

alpha_squared 5y ago

Mainstream news used to have a near-monopoly on access to events and crime scenes. The advent of smartphones with ever-improving cameras gives the average citizen, who's there in the moment, first access. Twitter just happened to be the medium with lowest barrier to sharing that, but it would've happened regardless. As stations couldn't keep up with the "breaking" part of news, it just made sense (unfortunately) to adopt the share-what-others-say model and talk about that instead.

brewdad 5y ago
I don't think eyewitness video is the biggest problem. When @LGBrandon8534932 gets their tweets posted on the evening news and it's treated the same as a statement from Dr Fauci. THAT'S a problem. Hyperbole. But not by much.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- alpha_squared 5y ago
  Once the floodgates have opened to allow social media statements to permeate mainstream news, there's no limiting which social media is acceptable and which isn't. Eventually, social media itself becomes the news. That feels like a natural progression to me, personally, despite how much I hate it.

cletus 5y ago

Another case of blaming a symptom rather than the cause. The media began showing Tweets because Twitter had reached a sufficient audience size. The real problem is the audience size. Stroustrup famously said [1]: > There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses. I'd paraphrase this about communication platforms (including social media, Reddit, forums, etc): > There are only two kinds of communication platforms: the ones where people are reactionary, argumentative, tribal, incendiary, conflict-seeking, virtue-signaling and just downright mean and the others too small for that not to have happened yet. [1]: https://www.stroustrup.com/quotes.html#:~:text=%22There%20are%20only%20two%20kinds,and%20the%20ones%20nobody%20uses%22 https://www.stroustrup.com/quotes.html#:~:text=%22There%20ar....